Mortgage broker - ask me anything

squidion

Hello there, hope you can offer some advice. 

We have £60k and 10 years left on our mortgage. Our rate is a bmr (bank rate +2%), so currently 3.75% and £550 p/month
My wife wants the certainty of fixing with whatever the current best rate is. However, I don’t really want to loose the bmr (from 2007) and want to ride out possible storms knowing when the dust settles we’ll potentially have a good rate again. What would you do based on your experience and knowledge? Thanks

doglover34

doglover34 said:

K_S said:

doglover34 said:

QQ - Natwest have said with my mums application that there was a discrepancy in her credit card balance.  She had paid this off and advised her broker when she applied.  He apparently declared it anyway as it was showing on her credit file as active and with the balance.  She was told last week from Natwest it was passed to offer BUT now Natwest are saying they have noticed a discrepancy on her credit card balance and to wait for the underwriters decision in 2 days. whats the likelihood of this going through?? she told the broker from the beginning this was paid off but hadnt updated on her file, he said he will sort it ... but shes not so sure?? any reassuance?

@doglover34 I would have done the same as your broker as the lender DIP and systems will automatically pick up whatever is in the credit report at the time, even if its outdated. I'd also mark it as to be paid off in full before completion.

It's not clear to me what the issue is at this point though. The only 'discrepancy' that could potentially cause an issue at this point would be that the current balance on the credit report (as shown on it now) is materially higher than that declared on the application and different enough to cause affordability issues.

The above is just an educated guess based on the very limited info in your post, so it may or may not be accurate. It's your broker who should be answering your questions as they have all the information and can speak to NatWest about the case.

Thank you Broker called back and said that when she applied on 17th august they ran a hard search but the dob was wrong, they ran another on the 23rd August, when it went to offer on 30th the credit card had been removed from the 23rd August so the the balances didnt add up and the computer passed it back to underwriting, he has spoke with the underwriter and he just needs to take this credit card off and resubmit to offer which will happen monday - phew!!.  fingers crossed it all works out - my poor mum

My mum got the offer yesterday, thank you for all your advice, she was supper anxious! 

MarcS84

Good afternoon, new user here.
Recently my partner and I applied for a mortgage, had to chase our broker a LOT and even had to submit all our documents twice and felt lied to all the way through.
We asked him twice for what we required plus £2000 to help with moving costs, was told not a problem. 
Finally get the mortgage offer (after we had to pay his fee) and it's for the wrong amount.
He left off the extra £2000 and now I am struggling to speak to him and it's angered me that he's done this as my partner is now worrying massively that we won't be able to move and lost any spare money we had paying fees.
Can anyone help where I stand with the fact this broker has completely messed this up and is now not responding to any calls/texts/emails
Many Thanks in advance 

K_S

MarcS84 said:

Good afternoon, new user here.
Recently my partner and I applied for a mortgage, had to chase our broker a LOT and even had to submit all our documents twice and felt lied to all the way through.
We asked him twice for what we required plus £2000 to help with moving costs, was told not a problem. 
Finally get the mortgage offer (after we had to pay his fee) and it's for the wrong amount.
He left off the extra £2000 and now I am struggling to speak to him and it's angered me that he's done this as my partner is now worrying massively that we won't be able to move and lost any spare money we had paying fees.
Can anyone help where I stand with the fact this broker has completely messed this up and is now not responding to any calls/texts/emails
Many Thanks in advance 

@marcs84 Quick comments -

£2,000 extra - If your offer is for 2k less than what you would like it to be, the broker should be able to amend the application and get the offer reissued for the increased amount. Needless to say, this would be subject to affordability and LTV.

Broker going AWOL - if you're not getting any response from them at all, might be worth considering putting in a formal complaint to get their attention. Alternatively, if it's one of the larger firms with their own Trustpilot accounts, a 1* review with a factual description of what went wrong should get you a response.

caffeinemonster1950

I am posting this here as it seems more active and relevant than my previous category!

--

First time post here and looking for some feedback, advice and ideas from anyone who has had related problems:

We have an existing ER plan with Just Group, made about 10 years ago. We want to take a further release out of the property. Our original thinking was to shop around and see what competitors are offering and then transfer / remortgage everything with a new lender if the rates are good.

Everything went smoothly, until we were kicked back at the last moment by More2Life - the reason being that there is a wooden telegraph pole with overhead power lines on the edge of the back garden, this came up as a consequence of the survey being done by them.

After much research, it turns out that this is in fact a serious problem for most lenders.

We are waiting to hear from Just wether it is possible to release the extra amount required from them, however in. light of the pole, we are very worried that we will be turned down by them; despite lending in the past (the pole issue maybe a new criteria, not valid at the time of the original ER) subsequently, we are trying to shop around other lenders to find out if there are alternatives; sadly we need to raise the funds urgently now - we are quite worried about the situation as we need funds relatively urgently.

The main contenders seem to be out:

Standard Life
More2Life
Legal General
AVIVA
Pure retirement

Does anyone know of a mortgage advisor or have experience of any lenders being flexible with this situation?

Ellalou

Can we buy our parents house? They have an interest only mortgage, £185k outstanding and can’t pay it off, nearing retirement so no mortgage options. 3 years are left on it and the house is worth approx 300-320k.

My brother (30) lives in the property. Can they sell him (with maybe one of us on it too- 4 siblings) the house for £185k on a reply meant mortgage and he and my parents still live there? 

Surely we don’t need to sell the house to a stranger to pay this off. We want to keep it in the family.  

thanks 

K_S

Ellalou said:

Can we buy our parents house? They have an interest only mortgage, £185k outstanding and can’t pay it off, nearing retirement so no mortgage options. 3 years are left on it and the house is worth approx 300-320k.

My brother (30) lives in the property. Can they sell him (with maybe one of us on it too- 4 siblings) the house for £185k on a reply meant mortgage and he and my parents still live there? 

Surely we don’t need to sell the house to a stranger to pay this off. We want to keep it in the family.  

thanks 

@ellalou From a mortgage point of view, as long as you meet eligibility criteria, there are multiple ways to do this.

The exact mechanics will depend on the details, what you are looking to achieve, whether your parents want to remain on the title or not, whether you/brother want to go on the title or not, etc.

Diver22

Hi. I asked a question last week which you kindly answered about transferring an existing mortgage offer from Leeds Building Society to a new property.  Everything worked out exactly as you said. Unfortunately I now find a have a different potential problem and would appreciate any advice you can give. I have been doing some due diligence of my own on the new property and find it is located in a high risk area for flooding  (zone 3, 1 in 30 year chance every year). I had no idea at the time I viewed it and made an offer of the flood risk of the area though i knew some areas 15 or so miles away had suffered very bad flooding in 2015.

My original mortgage offer has been transferred to this property now. I really like the property, it is affordable for me in my particular circumstances, very suitable for my needs, very well looked after by the vendors, and a survey (mine not the BS's because they did a desktop valuation) has come back ok with only a couple of minor issues. I am an older borrower with limited deposit who only has access to a limited number of lenders because of my age. I have checked out the property's history of flooding of which there is none, and have established directly with a mainstream insurer it is insurable at an acceptable cost to me.  

The concern I have is whether when the building society reviews the search pack from the solicitor it will cause either a withdrawal of the offer (notwithstanding it is insurable) or a variation of the terms of the mortgage such as requiring a higher deposit which I don't have.  So my question is whether it would be better to seek a view from the building society at this stage about their risk appetite to limit any possible financial losses to myself  or to wait and see what happens when the conveyancing pack is sent to the building society for review. I cant ask this question myself, it would need to be through my broker who doesn't seem very keen to engage over tricky issues - and tells me  its only possible to post queries electronically - probably because they take time when he has other applications to progress. I haven't raised this issue with him because I'm uncertain about the best way forward.

I should add that this is the third property that I have run into issues with  - the first time I was gazumped but had not made a mortgage application at that point,  the second the vendor made no moves for two and a half months to properly instruct a solicitor (failure to provide ID,  proof of residence, solicitors required documentation, information about house etc) despite repeated requests by my solicitor, myself and the estate agent though I had a mortgage offer and solicitor primed and ready to go, and this property, the third, All this caused me to incur costs for a now redundant survey and some legal costs. I transferred the mortgage offer from the second property to this so I'm not sure where I would stand with the building society if i was to request a further transfer to another, fourth property, and and anyway I would like to stick with this one and avoid all the stress and worry of finding another  property and securing funding again. Also my mortgage broker has charged an additional fee for amending the mortgage application (changing the property details and requested (lower) loan amount and (higher) LTV).

Have you any experience  of any similar situation and what would you advise / suggest?

K_S

@diver22 Quick comments -

- I'm not a conveyancing or valuation expert, but personally, if you are able to insure the property at reasonable rates without onerous exclusions, then I wouldn't expect the lender to have an issue

- I can see why your broker is reluctant to bring this up with the lender (who will then likely pass it on to the valuer for comment) and in your place would just let conveyancing take its course

Diver22 said:

Hi. I asked a question last week which you kindly answered about transferring an existing mortgage offer from Leeds Building Society to a new property.  Everything worked out exactly as you said. Unfortunately I now find a have a different potential problem and would appreciate any advice you can give. I have been doing some due diligence of my own on the new property and find it is located in a high risk area for flooding  (zone 3, 1 in 30 year chance every year). I had no idea at the time I viewed it and made an offer of the flood risk of the area though i knew some areas 15 or so miles away had suffered very bad flooding in 2015.

My original mortgage offer has been transferred to this property now. I really like the property, it is affordable for me in my particular circumstances, very suitable for my needs, very well looked after by the vendors, and a survey (mine not the BS's because they did a desktop valuation) has come back ok with only a couple of minor issues. I am an older borrower with limited deposit who only has access to a limited number of lenders because of my age. I have checked out the property's history of flooding of which there is none, and have established directly with a mainstream insurer it is insurable at an acceptable cost to me.  

The concern I have is whether when the building society reviews the search pack from the solicitor it will cause either a withdrawal of the offer (notwithstanding it is insurable) or a variation of the terms of the mortgage such as requiring a higher deposit which I don't have.  So my question is whether it would be better to seek a view from the building society at this stage about their risk appetite to limit any possible financial losses to myself  or to wait and see what happens when the conveyancing pack is sent to the building society for review. I cant ask this question myself, it would need to be through my broker who doesn't seem very keen to engage over tricky issues - and tells me  its only possible to post queries electronically - probably because they take time when he has other applications to progress. I haven't raised this issue with him because I'm uncertain about the best way forward.

I should add that this is the third property that I have run into issues with  - the first time I was gazumped but had not made a mortgage application at that point,  the second the vendor made no moves for two and a half months to properly instruct a solicitor (failure to provide ID,  proof of residence, solicitors required documentation, information about house etc) despite repeated requests by my solicitor, myself and the estate agent though I had a mortgage offer and solicitor primed and ready to go, and this property, the third, All this caused me to incur costs for a now redundant survey and some legal costs. I transferred the mortgage offer from the second property to this so I'm not sure where I would stand with the building society if i was to request a further transfer to another, fourth property, and and anyway I would like to stick with this one and avoid all the stress and worry of finding another  property and securing funding again. Also my mortgage broker has charged an additional fee for amending the mortgage application (changing the property details and requested (lower) loan amount and (higher) LTV).

Have you any experience  of any similar situation and what would you advise / suggest?

Kass8282

My mortgage term ends in November, would you recommend a 2 or 5 year fixed rate, or longer? I don't really want to be tied in to a high interest rate any longer than I have to, but will the interest rates have gone down within 2 years?